Military fails on sex assaults

A graduating U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman marches Friday into the academy's graduation and commissioning ceremonies in Annapolis, Md. President Barack Obama urged new graduates tackle incidents of sexual assault as they assume leadership positions in the military.

In recent years, the U.S. military has made a concerted effort to combat sexual assaults against women. The Army's "I Am Strong" sexual assault prevention program schools all new soldiers on 10 "sex rules" of proper behavior. Once a year, all members of the Air Force must attend sexual assault prevention training. There are many other training classes, publications and even video games aimed at preventing sexual assaults.

The result? Abject failure.

The Defense Department reported that for all its efforts, the estimated number of sexual assaults in the military is up a whopping 37 percent - from 19,000 in 2011 to 26,000 in 2012. Only 3,374 of last year's assaults were officially reported and just 238 service members were convicted for sexual assault-related crimes.

The news came along with revelations that two military officers in charge of sexual assault prevention programs have been charged with sexual assaults themselves.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the Pentagon to retrain, recredential and rescreen all military recruiters and sexual assault prevention officers.

President Barack Obama chimed in as well, pledging a "sustained effort" to stem sexual assaults in the military. His comments on the seriousness of the issue were spot on.

"The issue of sexual assault in our armed forces undermines that trust," the president said. "So not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make, and has made, our military less effective than it can be. And as such, it is dangerous to our national security."

Outrage rippled through Congress, as well. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, called for immediate action to reform how the military investigates and prosecutes charges of sexual assault.

Earlier, Sen. Kelly Ayotte joined with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to offer legislation that would provide sexual assault victims with a military lawyer to help guide them through the complicated process of filing claims and would require DoD to keep better records on assault statistics.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced legislation that strikes at the heart of the problem by taking the process of deciding whether a sexual misconduct case goes to trial out of the victim's chain of command.

"It's increasingly clear that the military justice system is not working for its victims, and the chain of command is incapable of policing itself when it comes to a zero tolerance reality for these serious crimes," Gillibrand wrote in the Huffington Post.

Out of this legislative cacophony, some resonance needs to emerge.

That responsibility falls to the nine-member review panel recently created by Congress to give the Pentagon advice for overhauling its sexual assault prevention and response efforts by the middle of next year.

Hagel was correct when he urged Congress to take a deep breath and allow the review panel to do its work. An intelligent, comprehensive solution to the problem first requires dispassionate thoughtful analysis.

The Defense Department's decades of failure indicate fundamental changes are needed if the military culture that fosters sexual abuse is to change. Sensitivity classes and roleplaying games aren't enough. But Congress must not jump to interject its own knee-jerk judgment.